Editing Sunspot (section)

== History ==
{{Broader|Solar observation}}
The earliest record of sunspots is found in the Chinese ''[[I Ching]]'', completed before 800 BC. The text describes that a ''dou'' and ''mei'' were observed in the sun, where both words refer to a small obscuration.<ref name="Xu">{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/0146-6364(80)90034-1 |title=The hexagram "Feng" in "the book of changes" as the earliest written record of sunspot |journal=Chinese Astronomy |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=406 |year=1980 |last1=Xu Zhen-Tao |bibcode=1980ChA.....4..406X }}</ref> The earliest record of a deliberate sunspot observation also comes from China, and dates to 364 BC, based on comments by astronomer [[Gan De]] (甘德) in a [[star catalogue]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Early Astronomy and the Beginnings of a Mathematical Science |date=2007 |work=NRICH (University of Cambridge) |url=http://nrich.maths.org/6843 |access-date=2010-07-14}}</ref> By 28 BC, Chinese astronomers were regularly recording sunspot observations in official imperial records.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Observation of Sunspots  |date=1988  |journal=UNESCO Courier  |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1310/is_1988_Oct/ai_6955852/  |access-date=2010-07-14  |url-status=dead  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110702095337/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1310/is_1988_Oct/ai_6955852/  |archive-date=2011-07-02}}</ref>

The first clear mention of a sunspot in [[Western literature]] is circa 300 BC, by [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] scholar [[Theophrastus]], student of [[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]] and successor to the latter.<ref>"[http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2007JBAA..117..346V Letter to the Editor: Sunspot observations by Theophrastus revisited]", and see Theophrastus' Fragment VI, ''De Signis Tempestatum'', 11.4–5.</ref>

The earliest known [[Sunspot drawing|drawings of sunspots]] were made by English monk [[John of Worcester]] in December 1128.<ref name="StephensonWillis1999">{{cite journal |last1=Stephenson |first1=F. R. |last2=Willis |first2=D. M. |title=The earliest drawing of sunspots |journal=Astronomy & Geophysics |volume=40 |issue=6 |year=1999 |pages=6.21–6.22 |issn=1366-8781 |doi=10.1093/astrog/40.6.6.21|bibcode=1999A&G....40f..21S |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>Stefan Hughes, ''Catchers of the Light: The Forgotten Lives of the Men and Women Who First Photographed the Heavens'', ArtDeCiel Publishing, 2012 p. 317</ref>

Sunspots were first observed telescopically in December 1610 by English astronomer [[Thomas Harriot]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vokhmyanin |first1=M. |last2=VArlt |first2=R. |last3=Zolotova |first3=N. |title=Sunspot Positions and Areas from Observations by Thomas Harriot |journal=Solar Physics |date=10 March 2020 |volume=295 |issue=3 |pages=39.1–39.11 |doi=10.1007/s11207-020-01604-4 |bibcode=2020SoPh..295...39V |s2cid=216259048 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-020-01604-4}}</ref> His observations were recorded in his notebooks and were followed in March 1611 by observations and reports by [[Frisians|Frisian]] astronomers [[Johannes Fabricius|Johannes]] and [[David Fabricius]].<ref name="solargreat">{{cite web | title=Great Moments in the History of Solar Physics 1| work =Great Moments in the History of Solar Physics | url=http://web.hao.ucar.edu/public/education/sp/great_moments.html| access-date = 2006-03-19 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060301083022/http://web.hao.ucar.edu/public/education/sp/great_moments.html |archive-date = 1 March 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Vaquero |first1=J.M. |last2=Vázquez  |first2=M |title=The Sun Recorded Through History: Scientific Data Extracted from Historical Documents vol. 361 of the series Astrophysics and Space Science Library |doi=10.1007/978-0-387-92790-9 |date=2009 |volume=361 |publisher=Springer, New York |isbn=978-0-387-92789-3 }}</ref> After Johannes Fabricius' death at the age of 29, his reports remained obscure and were overshadowed by the independent discoveries of and publications about sunspots by [[Christoph Scheiner]] and [[Galileo Galilei]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Carlowicz |first1=Michael J. |last2=López |first2=Ramón |title=Storms from the Sun: The Emerging Science of Space Weather |date=2002 |publisher=Joseph Henry Press |pages=1–382 |isbn=978-0309076425 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RJO_IsMDiccC&pg=PP66 |access-date=19 June 2020}}</ref> Galileo likely began telescopic sunspot observations around the same time as Harriot; however, Galileo's records did not start until 1612.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vokhmyanin |first1=M. |last2=Zolotova |first2=N. |title=Sunspot Positions and Areas from Observations by Galileo Galilei |journal=Solar Physics |date=5 February 2018 |volume=293 |issue=2 |pages=31.1–31.21 |doi=10.1007/s11207-018-1245-1 |bibcode=2018SoPh..293...31V |s2cid=126329839 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-018-1245-1}}</ref> During the next decades numerous astronomers of that era participated in the pursuit of sunspots. One of these was the famous astronomer [[Johannes Hevelius]] who recorded 19 sunspot groups during the period of the early [[Maunder Minimum]] (1653-1679) in the book Machina Coelestis.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hoyt |first1=Douglas V. |last2=Schatten |first2=Kenneth H. |date=1995-09-01 |title=Overlooked sunspot observations by Hevelius in the early Maunder Minimum, 1653–1684 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00732815 |journal=Solar Physics |language=en |volume=160 |issue=2 |pages=371–378 |doi=10.1007/BF00732815 |bibcode=1995SoPh..160..371H |issn=1573-093X}}</ref>

In the early 19th Century, [[William Herschel]] was one of the first to hypothesize a connection of sunspots with temperatures on Earth and believed that certain features of sunspots would indicate increased heating on Earth.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Herschel |first1=William |title=XIII. Observations tending to investigate the nature of the sun, in order to find the causes or symptoms of its variable emission of light and heat; with remarks on the use that may possibly be drawn from solar observations |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London |date=31 December 1801 |volume=91 |pages=265–318 |doi=10.1098/rstl.1801.0015 |s2cid=122986696 |doi-access=free }}</ref> During his recognition of solar behavior and hypothesized solar structure, he inadvertently picked up the relative absence of sunspots from July 1795 to January 1800 and was perhaps the first to construct a past record of observed or missing sunspots. From this he found that the absence of sunspots coincided with high wheat prices in England. The president of the [[Royal Society]] commented that the upward trend in wheat prices was due to [[monetary inflation]].<ref>Soon, W., and Yaskell, S.H., The Maunder Minimum and the Variable Sun-earth Connection (World Scientific Press: 2003) pp. 87–88</ref> Years later scientists such as [[Richard Carrington]] in 1865 and [[John Henry Poynting]] in 1884 tried and failed to find a connection between wheat prices and sunspots, and modern analysis finds that there is no statistically significant correlation between wheat prices and sunspot numbers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Love |first1=Jeffrey J. |title=On the insignificance of Herschel's sunspot correlation |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |date=27 August 2013 |volume=40 |issue=16 |pages=4171–4176 |doi=10.1002/grl.50846 |bibcode=2013GeoRL..40.4171L |s2cid=1654166 }}</ref>